The first core value, to "love God with passion",
is the one on which our whole life is being built. Without it we cannot
even the 2 other qualities of seeking the Truth and welcoming painful
changes with faith. Practically it implies daily hours of prayer and
meditation of the Word, regular fasting, personal retreats, and
basically all the creative and original ways by which we seek God in
order to have a strong, intimate and emotional connection with God.

The second core value, "seek the whole truth"involves
the very idea that we must develop the intellectual and spiritual
discipline of constantly seeking the whole Truth as it is revealed in
the Scriptures. This implies that we should constantly ask ourselves
questions and hear both sides of any truth. The finality of such a quest
is to know God, this world in which we live and know ourselves in such a
way that we will have practical answers for every single area of our
existence, whether this affects moral, social, political, physical or
any kind of "-al" that life has to offer. This, in turn, should have
very practical implications on how we view the doctrinal unity of the
Church and how holistic our religion will become.

Finally, the third core value, to "welcome painful changes with faith"is
basically having the attitude of welcoming all sufferings in life as
opportunities to change and mature in Christ. It means that we accept
difficult challenges not with a passive and pessimistic resignation, but
with the faith that we shall have great victories because all things
are possible through Christ. This attitude helps us to avoid both
extremes: one is the rosy-easy going-bless me type of Christianity in
which we expect God to be a vending machine of all our self-centered
needs. The other is the fatalistic depressive religion that sees every
suffering in life as a heavy cross to bear.

TO LOVE CHRISTIANS implies the following three core values:

The fourth core value, "humility",
is more than the ability to learn from others and welcome corrections
and even criticism from anyone, but it is as well the attitude of being
vulnerable and transparent about our weaknesses and sins with a few
chosen friends. If we refuse to acquire an objective picture of
ourselves through others, we will end up giving wrong impressions to
them, and will deceive ourselves. We must have the humility to listen
and learn from others so that we will have a more objective picture of
our characters.Theultimate
goal of every Christian relationship is not just feel good or
encouraged. This is obviously necessary, but it is not an end in itself.
God has given us his Church so that we would grow in the likeness of
his son, which translated in our terms means that we should radically
change our lives and characters. This is where I see the following three
relational values as being absolutely essential in helping us reaching
this goal.

The fifth core value, "telling the truth",is
being able to gently but uncompromisingly confront other Christians
with the truth of their own sins, in an attitude of patient love. Wisdom
requires that we may not always speak our minds to anyone, but this
attitude is absolutely essential with the few friends we have chosen to
have. In fact, the absence of such a practice is symptomatic of
unhealthy and useless friendships. We must have friendships where we
tell the whole truth.

Finally, the sixth core value, "unconditional grace"means
to unconditionally accept and love people as they are, with the same
grace and faithfulness that God has shown us in Christ. It basically
implies that even if we do not accept their sins, we genuinely accept
them as persons, regardless whether they will ever change or not.

The
mixture of those three components will not only help us to have a
powerful transformation of both our lives and our communities, but it
will prevent us from being in spiritual danger. For instance, out of the
five churches in the book of Revelations that had problems, such that
Jesus had to correct them, one, Ephesus, had lost the first core value,
her passion for God. Two of them, Thyatira and Pergamum, refused to
practice the fifth core value, that is to confront sins in their midst.
Finally, the last two, Laodicea and Sardis, did not cherish humility,
the fourth core value, as they gave false impressions of themselves.

TO LOVE NON-CHRISTIANS implies the following three core values:

The
ultimate goal in our relationship with this world is not just to be
compassionate and serving, but to powerfully convert and mature as many
as possible to Jesus.

The seventh core value, to "win as many as possible",challenges
us to all develop a life style where all our priorities in life are to
lead as many people as possible to the Saviour. We must train ourselves
to develop an attitude in life where absolutely everything is decided
and influenced by the priority of winning as many as possible for Jesus.

The eighth core value "disciples them to multiplication"implies
not only the idea that we train every single one of our converts into a
complete obedience to Jesus, but that they do the same with others,
such that we have a multiplication of mature disciples. We must
personally train and disciple every single person we convert, and
likewise we must train Christians who have similar gifts and callings
than ours. (for instance every pastor must chose and train younger
pastors into the ministry)

Finally, the ninth core value, "grow in the supernatural"encourages
us to develop an evangelism where we constantly minister with the
supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. Often whenever Christians want to
experience the supernatural it is very self-centered and has very
little to do with bold evangelism, which is why they hardy ever see
anything happen. The Holy Spirit was given NOT so we seek experiences to
please ourselves, but to have power so that we can better face
oppositions and win others to Christ.

Conclusion

The above is the kind of simple, radical and uncompromising Christianity I advocate for my next church planting. Unlike
so many Christians, I do not define my religion by doctrinal
differences, but mostly by a deep relationship with God and others that
lead to conversions and radical character changes.

My
religion is one that is driven by a holy passion of chasing after God
and his Word, and yet disciplined enough to bring other books and the
cross with it; it is a religion that is never afraid to confront its own
members to radically change their characters at any price, and yet
gracious enough to never ever give up on them; a religion that is bold
to evangelize in the power of the Spirit, and yet wise enough to keep
and even multiply every single convert through discipleship.

It
is a religion that follows a simple plan, the Master plan. It has not
changed in its essence ever since it was exemplified by our Lord. What
is your own plan and main priorities? How do you therefore define the
core values that characterise both your life and your church?